Life goal selection pattern and purpose in adolescence: A latent class analysis.

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the goal selection patterns among adolescents and examines the extent to which goals focused on oneself, relationships, and the larger community were associated with variability of daily purpose and mean level sense of purpose in life.

Methods: Participants were 213 high school students with an average age of 15.18 years in an urban public school district in the Northeast United States.

Impact of a schoolwide social and emotional learning implementation model on student outcomes: The importance of social-emotional leadership.

The present study examined the impact of the CASEL School Guide, an innovative model of implementation support for systemic SEL, on the social, emotional, and academic development of elementary grade students in schools implementing the evidence-based PATHS® Program. The study tested a 2-year intervention model in a cluster randomized design with 28 low-performing, urban, high-poverty elementary schools. We expected that the School Guide model of support would promote greater fidelity of PATHS implementation by teachers and improvement in students' social-emotional, behavioral, and academic outcomes compared to schools delivering PATHS with the standard model of support.

Intraindividual Fluctuations in Sleep Predict Subsequent Goal Setting in Adolescents.

The purpose of this study was to investigate within- and between-person associations between sleep and subsequent goal setting in adolescents. We conducted an intensive repeated measures longitudinal study to assess intra- and inter-individual associations between sleep and goal setting and potential moderators of such associations. Thirty-nine seventh through 12th graders reported on their sleep quality and propensity to set goals in their daily lives several times per week for approximately four months.

Using Complier Average Causal Effect Estimation to Examine Student Outcomes of the PAX Good Behavior Game When Integrated with the PATHS Curriculum.

A growing body of research has documented a link between variation in implementation dosage and outcomes associated with preventive interventions. Complier Average Causal Effect (CACE; Jo in J Educ Behav Stat 27:385-409, 2002) analysis allows for estimating program impacts in light of variation in implementation. This study reports intent-to-treat (ITT) and CACE findings from a randomized controlled trial (RCT) testing the impacts of the universal PAX Good Behavior Game (PAX GBG) integrated with Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (i.

Impacts of Family Rewards on Adolescents' Mental Health and Problem Behavior: Understanding the Full Range of Effects of a Conditional Cash Transfer Program.

This paper examines the effects of Opportunity New York City-Family Rewards, the first holistic conditional cash transfer (CCT) program evaluated in the USA, on adolescents' mental health and problem behavior (key outcomes outside of the direct targets of the program) as well as on key potential mechanisms of these effects. The Family Rewards program, launched by the Center for Economic Opportunity in the Mayor's Office of the City of New York in 2007 and co-designed and evaluated by MDRC, offered cash assistance to low-income families to reduce economic hardship. The cash rewards were offered to families in three key areas: children's education, family preventive health care, and parents' employment.

Using Complier Average Causal Effect Estimation to Determine the Impacts of the Good Behavior Game Preventive Intervention on Teacher Implementers.

Complier average causal effect (CACE) analysis is a causal inference approach that accounts for levels of teacher implementation compliance. In the current study, CACE was used to examine one-year impacts of PAX good behavior game (PAX GBG) and promoting alternative thinking strategies (PATHS) on teacher efficacy and burnout. Teachers in 27 elementary schools were randomized to PAX GBG, an integration of PAX GBG and PATHS, or a control condition.

How Do School-Based Prevention Programs Impact Teachers? Findings from a Randomized Trial of an Integrated Classroom Management and Social-Emotional Program.

A number of classroom-based interventions have been developed to improve social and behavioral outcomes for students, yet few studies have examined how these programs impact the teachers who are implementing them. Impacts on teachers may affect students and therefore also serve as an important proximal outcome to examine. The current study draws upon data from a school-based randomized controlled trial testing the impact of two prevention programs.

Authoritative school climate, aggression toward teachers, and teacher distress in middle school.

Aggression toward teachers is linked to burnout and disengagement from teaching, but a positive school climate may reduce aggression and associated teacher distress. Using authoritative school climate theory, the study examined whether schools with high disciplinary structure and student support were associated with less aggression and less distress. The sample of 9,134 teachers in 389 middle schools came from the Virginia Secondary School Climate Survey, a statewide survey administered to all public schools with 7th and 8th grade enrollment.

Cross-national measurement of school learning environments: Creating indicators for evaluating UNICEF's Child Friendly Schools Initiative.

The present study examines the psychometric properties of a student-reported measure of school quality, the CFS Conditions for Learning Survey, to examine its utility as a cross-national comparative measure to evaluate UNICEF's Child Friendly Schools initiative. Factor analyses conducted on data from fifth- and sixth- grade students in 68 schools across the Philippines, Nicaragua, and South Africa revealed a core set of items that loaded highly onto each of the three dimensions of the CFS Conditions for Learning survey across all three countries. Formal tests established measurement invariance for a subset of these items, indicating that they were free from methodological bias across countries.

School-based strategies to prevent violence, trauma, and psychopathology: the challenges of going to scale.

Children's trauma-related mental health problems are widespread, largely untreated and constitute significant barriers to academic achievement and attainment. Translational research has begun to identify school-based interventions to prevent violence, trauma and psychopathology. We describe in detail the findings to date on research evaluating one such intervention, the Reading, Writing, Respect, and Resolution (4Rs) Program.